The Governor of Zamfara State, Mr. Dauda Lawal , has said that Zamfara was a dysfunctional state when his administration started in 2023.
Lawal added that his predecessor, former Governor Bello Matawalle, handed a state that was completely in a mess and entrapped in multi-dimensional problems to him.
Lawal made these assertions on Monday when he was interviewed on the Arise News TV.
According to him, he met only N4 million in the state treasury when he took over in 2023.
He said: “I took over a dysfunctional system where nothing exists. No process, no planning, no budgeting and financial indiscipline was rife.
“Everywhere was disconnected, including the Government House, because of non-payment of electricity bill.
“I had to pay N1.6 billion to restore electricity supply, especially in government offices.
“The problem was multidimensional and we had to prioritise and our first priority is security and the next is education.”
He added that “when I took over as governor, Zamfara State was in a mess in every aspect of life. Insecurity, we were at the top; education, we were at the bottom; human development and capacity were almost non-existent.
“They were the reasons why I had to declare a state of emergency in education and health.
“Remember that when I took over there was nothing in our treasury.
“There were so many debts. I only inherited N4 million and the records are there with all sorts of liabilities ranging from backlog of salaries. N1.6 billion was owed to the judiciary. The West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Education Council (NECO) were owed N1.4 billion and so many other challenges that I had to face head on.”
He explained that his move was to clear the backlog of salaries and had agreements with WAEC and NECO so that students in Zamfara State could sit for their WASC and NECO examinations and also enable those that have taken these exams in the past years to collect their results.
“The liabilities were unbelievable and I had to find a way to settle them.
“When I took over the salary of a civil servant in Zamfara State was N7,000. I had to quickly raise to the level of then minimum wage of N30,000.
“Since 2011, pensioners were not paid to the tune of N16.5 billion. This has been cleared. And we are currently paying the N70,000 minimum new wage,” he said.
The governor explained that he declared a state of emergency in education, which has seen over 400 schools across the 14 local governments being renovated.
Also his administration has been able to settle its indebtedness with WAEC and NECO as well as liabilities on the state government’s scholarship for students in Sudan and India with the hope of settling those in Cyprus very soon.
According to the governor, he had to prioritize education.
“We are employing 500 teachers in specialized fields like science, mathematics and Information Technology,” he said.
He explained that the building of an airport was to attract investors to the state.
He argued that it would be difficult for investors to drive seven hours on the road from Abuja to Zamfara.
He said that the airport would be ready within four months.
Lawal said that he accomplished these without borrowing.
The governor said that most of his travels outside the state were to engage development institutions to provide financial resources to the state.
He said that there is no local government he is not implementing a N5 billion project.
“What people are saying is that we are building roads in Gusau, which we have to because it is the caital of Zamfara State.
“There are local governments in the state with good road networks but it is onlt animals that are plying those roads. So, they do not need roads.
“They need hospitals, schools, water and these are what we are providing. There is water in all the local governments. There are hositls.
“We are doing specialist and general hospital in Gasau that will be commissioned in May. We have so far renovated over 70 Primary Health Centres in the state.
“So it is political statement to say that we are not doing anything in the rural areas,” the governor said.
